updates
cmooney | July 15, 2006As many of you folks will have noticed, I travel and speak a lot. So much so, in fact, that this new lifestyle has made it tough at times for me to get enough writing done. However, oddly enough, I also have become addicted to traveling. In fact, I find that getting out of Washington and holing myself up to work in strange places helps a lot--and that's what I'm doing for the next two weeks. I'm heading to London, where I'll be staying at the awesome Hempel Hotel and immersing myself in some serious writing. Granted, the city may have its distractions, but I've been to London before and seen…
cmooney | July 13, 2006Haven't posted today as I've been on the road, and then had to catch up on sleep. As a result, while I arrived four hours ago in Albany at the "Politics and Bioethics" conference, I but have not yet even gone down to check out the scene. But it really sounds like this conference is going to break new ground by bringing left and right to the same table. Meanwhile, I have a talk to prepare for tomorrow, so I'm ducking out of range again for the moment...
P.S.: Thanks to those who left comments about Doerflinger. I may leave a more detailed subsequent post asking you to respond to particular…
cmooney | July 12, 2006Today right in my backyard, at the Mariott Wardman Park Hotel in DC, the Center for American Progress's campus branch is having its 2006 National Student Conference. I'm pleased to say that the event will include a panel on the "war on science" from 2:45 to 4:00 pm, and I'll be on that panel. Details here. Just as was the case with Yearly Kos last month, these "war on science" panels really seem to be popping up everywhere--science is "on the agenda," so to speak. And to me, that's very heartening....
cmooney | July 11, 2006For those in DC, I'm appearing on a panel tonight about new media and the future of science reporting, held at the wonderful Koshland Museum of the National Academy of Sciences. It starts at 6 pm; more details here. As a kind of warm up, I'd love to hear any thoughts from you folks as to how blogging, podcasting, etc are changing the communication of science--either scientific results themselves, or their societal meaning and interpretation. Fire away...
cmooney | June 22, 2006Well, I was thrilled last night when my very first ever New Orleans event was totally packed. I estimate about 80 people showed up at the Garden District Book Shop uptown for wine, food, and then a lecture by yours truly. I had actually had a beer beforehand, breaking one of my cardinal rules of public speaking, but it seemed appropriate for a New Orleans crowd. In my audience were old high school teachers, high school friends, and their familes, as well as members of the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association, which helped cosponsor the event.
Now it's off to Houston, where I'm speaking…
cmooney | June 21, 2006I am doing my southern talks starting today: Details here. New Orleans tonight; Houston tomorrow night. I'm trying to think of regionally specific humor to use for New Orleans but also Houston in particular, so feel free to post any suggestions. You know, something along the lines of, when in Michigan make fun of Ohio State, when at Ohio State, make fun of Michigan....
cmooney | June 19, 2006There is still a lot of chatter about my Science Friday debate with Tom Bethell last week. Apparently it made some waves, so I'd like to make sure that anyone who hasn't heard it yet gets a chance to. If you'd like to listen with Real Audio, click here; for Windows Media Player, click here; and for the Podcast, click here.
Meanwhile, I'm psyched that BoingBoing has plugged the debate; click here for their take. They cite my "radio-show ninjitsu"....
cmooney | June 17, 2006I just arrived in New Orleans this morning, where I'll be hanging out for about a week. I'm laying low for a while to do some writing, but this coming Wednesday I'll be speaking for the very first time in my hometown. (Details here). Interestingly, tomorrow night my brother Davy, the jazz ace, is also having his first show in New Orleans since Katrina forced him to flee and relocate in Brooklyn ten months ago. So it's an important span of time for the Mooneys here in New Orleans; we're doing double homecomimgs. I'll let you know how it goes....
cmooney | June 15, 2006Just realized that the paperback version of the book is already available for preorder on Amazon.com (and probably elsewhere). See here. I've changed my book link on the left hand margin to go to the paperback preorder page, rather than to the hardcover page as it has done for the last nine months or so. The paperback itself will be out towards the end of August.
Note: For the hardcover version of The Republican War on Science, online pre-orders were a big factor in building momentum for the book. I even made Amazon's list for most pre-ordered titles. For the paperback, I'm not going to push…
cmooney | June 13, 2006Got some news, folks: I'm going to be on NPR's Science Friday with Ira Flatow, this Friday, from 3:15 to 4:00 ET, debating Tom Bethell about the politics of science. If you want to call in, the number is (800) 989-8255. It's not up on the website yet that this is happening but I can confirm it. The show's website, incidentally, is here.
Meanwhile, in advance of the paperback release, we've set up a lot of new book tour dates in September. I'm going back to the West Coast (San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle), but also to a number of places where I've never given talks before (Madison…
cmooney | June 12, 2006Check it out here. Key quote: "It's so important that we continue to fight against right-wing efforts to hijack and distort science for their own partisan purposes." Amen to that...
cmooney | June 7, 2006Well, I've just spent three days writing...the "manuscript" is starting to actually look like something where the scare quotes can be removed around that word....But now I must shift into public speaking mode again. Tomorrow the rent car and I will be heading from Flagstaff slightly northwest to Las Vegas, which should make for a very pretty drive. I'm not sure if I'll get to Sin City in time for the Yearly Kos Science Bloggers Caucus tomorrow (schedule here), but I will certainly be ready to speak alongside PZ, General Clark, and Wendy Northcutt Friday morning. More generally, I am getting…
cmooney | June 1, 2006Well, folks, I'm off to Pasadena tomorrow; the debate with Ron Bailey is Saturday. I may blog more about it here if I need feedback on any particular point as I prep my arguments today and, once I arrive at the hotel in Pasadena, tomorrow.
Meanwhile, as thing are likely to be bumpy, here is what you can expect from me for the rest of the month blog- and speech-wise; turns out I'm venturing into a lot of new areas:
June 4-8: After Pasadena, I am retreating to a family house north of Flagstaff, Arizona to get some writing done. No Internet, may not even be a phone. So there will definitely be…
cmooney | May 19, 2006I must admit, I was starting to worry about this upcoming Yearly Kos science panel in Vegas. In the city that never sleeps, the event was scheduled for 8 am (!)--the one time, if ever, when people visiting Vegas probably do sleep. I had a suspicion that nobody would even attend.
Well, scratch that: We just learned that General Wesley Clark is actually going to be joining the panel. This is awesome in myriad ways, not the least of them being that Clark has become very outspoken about climate change...
cmooney | May 15, 2006I just got shipped six copies of the Korean edition of my book. Man, it's weird; I wish I had a jpeg to throw up here so that I could show you. The cover says "Science War" and there are pictures of belching power plants and what looks like stem cells. Plus lots of characters (presumably Korean) that I totally don't understand. My name is on the cover too--in translation. I wish I could write it here but none of the symbols are to be found on my computer keyboard, although the first one looks like a backwards capitalized "E" and another looks like a "4". This whole experience has made me…
cmooney | May 14, 2006While I was out in San Diego last month, I got to do a lengthy interview with science historian Naomi Oreskes for UCSD-TV. UCSD-TV also filmed a keynote speech I did for Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties. The latter hasn't aired yet, but the former is now available online and you can watch it here using RealPlayer. I thought it was a really good, high level discussion. Oreskes had me respond to some criticisms from people like Daniel Sarewitz and the sociology of science crowd, as well as setting the issue of use and misuse of science in its full historical context. I…
cmooney | May 11, 2006Well, there's nothing like a little controversy to make a conference well attended...and now it appears that all of the back and forth on this blog about the upcoming Skeptics Society conference has indeed triggered such a "controversy." John Rennie over at SciAm Observations has done an entire post about it, complete with his take on the matter and a response to the criticisms that you folks have made from Michael Shermer. I encourage you to check it all out. At some point I plan to say a bit more myself; for now, I will only say that I'm attending, debating, and am sure it will be a great…
cmooney | May 5, 2006I'm locking horns with Reason's Ronald Bailey early next month at the following conference put on by Michael Shermer's Skeptics Society:
Why are we still debating climate change? How soon will we hit peak oil supply? When politics mix with science, what is being brewed? Join speakers from the left & the right, from the lab & the field, from industry & advocacy, as we air the ongoing debate about whether human activity is actually changing the climate of the planet.
Bailey and I are debating, for an hour, the question of "Distorting Science: Who's Worse, The Left or the Right?" I…
cmooney | April 29, 2006Last night she was announced winner of the Los Angeles Times book prize in science and technology for her book Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima, which I haven't read but which I'm certain is very deserving of the distinction. Afterwards, Sean Carroll and I cried into our beers....er, no, just kidding, I was glad just to be recognized, and it was a great event here in Los Angeles. It was fun to hang out afterwards and talk to the city's literary bigwigs. I'll be appearing on a panel tomorrow at the LA Times book festival along with Arianna Huffington, Jules Witcover, and…
cmooney | April 24, 2006I know I haven't been posting much but you probably wouldn't either with my travel schedule...May will be much more calm, I assure you. Anyway, today I'm in beautiful San Diego doing a private talk; then it's off to Monterey for the American Meteorological Society's 27th conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology; then to LA for the Los Angeles Times book prize ceremonies (fingers crossed) and to speak at the Los Angeles Times book festival; then back to San Diego again for more events...see here for all the gory details.